BRUSSELS – Journalismfund.eu is proud to announce a new, intercontinental working grant programme for investigative journalists. The programme, Connecting Continents, provides €100,000 for working grants for Sub-Saharan African journalists collaborating with European colleagues or vice versa.

Connecting Continents is a pilot project separate from Journalismfund.eu’s regular European cross-border working grant programme. The project is launched in cooperation with Oxfam Novib, which provides the money for the grants.

Journalismfund.eu operates as a firewall between the funders and the journalists, making sure that there is a strict division between where the money comes from and where it goes to safeguard the independence of participating journalists and media. We have year-long experience with similar types of funding through our European cross-border and our Flemish Fonds Pascal Decroos working grant programmes.

Application procedure

There is €100,000 to distribute, to be spread over two application calls. The deadline of the first call is June 8th, the second will be in August.

Applications will be screened by a separate, independent, anonymous jury of four people with ample experience in investigative journalism in Africa and Europe. The jury members are chosen by Journalismfund.eu.

Only intercontinental journalist teams consisting of at least one Sub-Saharan African and one European journalist are eligible to apply. Preference goes to African journalists working in DR Congo, Uganda, Nigeria or Mozambique, although others are also eligible. The investigative stories should focus on financial flows and governance, and have to be published in at least one African and one European country.

Official launch

The working grant programme was officially launched during Journalismfund.eu’s Dataharvest European Investigative Journalism Conference 2015, 9 May in Brussels. A separate website for the programme has been set up: www.conntinents.org.

Colophon

Journalismfund.eu vzw (formerly known as Fonds Pascal Decroos voor Bijzondere Journalistiek vzw) is an independent non‐profit organisation established with the purpose of promoting quality cross-border and in-depth journalism in Europe.